Saturday, December 22, 2007

Great day...

We had a wonderful family day at home yesterday. Cody was in great spirits and there were no outbursts. "Knock on wood.." His appetite has decreased but that was expected. We just have to keep putting it in front of him in hopes he will eat more.

Today he has to go in for blood work. Diane is taking him into Georgetown. We could’ve asked that a nurse come out but we are not so sure about the home nursing reliability. They tend to lose blood work and are not very dependable. We expect him to hit rock bottom in the next day or two. He will probably go in on Monday to get platelets and whole blood or both.

I've decided to post a fact about childhood cancer on some of my posts. My hope is to raise awareness about the lack of research funding that goes to childhood cancer.

Although the 5 year survivalrate is steadily increasing, onequarter of children will die 5years from the time of diagnosis.

Glory Belle,you asked “when did we know when Cody was sick.” Well it's a little long but I will try my best to keep it short. We first though he had hurt his leg at the sitter. He started not wanting to walk and wanted to be held all the time. He then developed a fever. All these symptoms started while we were on vacation at Nags Head in 04. The whole week was extremely stressful. After getting back from the beach Diane took Cody into to our family pediatrician. He sent us over to the hospital immediately for blood work. After getting the results he told us to go to a cancer specialist in FairfaxVA the next morning. I remember that morning very well. Cody cried the entire time we were at the doctor’s office. He was in such pain.

Here is a picture of the kids on Mothers Day 04. This was typical Cody.

So, to make a long story short, he developed fever, and his joints of his legs and ankles were hurting him very bad. The way neuroblastoma works is that it gets into the bone marrow. It is a very aggressive cancer and grows quickly. Once in the marrow it creates pressure in the bones which is why his joints hurt. Here is a quick definition of the cancer from BOP.

What is neuroblastoma?It is a childhood cancer of the sympatheticnervous system, affecting approximately 650 children inthe U.S. every year. It is the second most common solidtumor in infants. Most children are diagnosed by 2.5 yearsof age. Up to sixty percent of them have high risk disease that has metastasized (spread to other parts of the body) by the time they are diagnosed. Survival is dependent on age and disease stage: children diagnosed before the age of 18 months have a high survival rate, but high risk children diagnosed before age 5 have about a 30 percent chance of growing up. For children over age 5, teens, and adults, the prognosis is very poor.

Mickey and Diane, I sit here two days before Christmas and think about you and the kids. How stressful and emotional it must be and being torn between taking care of and focusing on Cody and trying to pull off Christmas for the others. I can only tell you that a part of me is thinking of you always, and praying. For this Christmas our hearts and prayers are with you. Merry Christmas from our home to yours. May your prayers be answered.

Thinking of you tonight! Kids are probably busy playing with their toys. I hope Cody is still home. Many, many prayers and positive thoughts going your way. Merry Christmas and love to all your family !!G2G

I enjoyed reading your blog today. Thanks for including some facts about childhood cancer in your recently post to try to raise awareness about childhood cancer research. Appreciate the link to CureSearch as well. I work for CureSearch managing the website content and also a blog: http://curesearchnccf.blogspot.com/

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About Me

I grew up, ah, got older in Ford City Pa. A small town 45 minutes up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. Growing up a true 70's child I really thought that the Steelers were suppose to win the Super Bowl every year. :D Being the free spirit that I am I couldn't wait to get out on my own, so I joined the Navy. I flew out to the Philippines and met my boat the USS John Paul Jones DDG32. From there we sailed back to the states and spent most of the rest of my tour between San Diego and Long Beach. Since getting out I married twice, had 6 children and lived in Groton CT, Pensacola FL, Germantown MD and now in Northern VA. I've been married to my wife Diane for 10 years now and have three energetic and loving children. My life reads like a fiction novel in many ways. Many ups and downs but I feel blessed to have this life. To some it may seem boring but it's all mine.. :D